Somalia

» Press freedom violations rise in Puntland and Somaliland.

Local and international journalists faced persistent,
deadly violence, with both targeted
murders and crossfire killings reported. Four
soldiers with the African Union peacekeeping mission fired on a Malaysian humanitarian aid convoy in September, killing one
journalist and injuring another. The AU mission in
Somalia suspended the soldiers
and returned them to their home country of Burundi
for potential trial. Despite improved security in the capital, Mogadishu, journalists across the country continued to flee into exile to avoid threats and violence. Al-Shabaab militants and other
insurgents continued to shutter independent radio stations
in southern and central Somalia. Growing
insecurity in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland led to increased attacks
and arrests of journalists. In
Somaliland, President Ahmed Mahmoud Silyano reneged
on his 2010 campaign pledge to uphold press freedom and initiated a series of state-
sponsored criminal defamation cases against the region's private press.

With at least 10 unsolved murders of journalists in the last decade, Somalia has the worst
rating in Africa and the second worst worldwide in
combating deadly attacks on the press, CPJ's
Impunity Index shows.

CPJ's 2011 Impunity index:

1. Iraq2. Somalia
3. Philippines
4. Sri Lanka

5. Colombia
6. Afghanistan
7. Nepal
8. Mexico

9. Russia
10. Pakistan
11. Bangladesh
12. Brazil

13. India

Facing threats, attacks, and harassment, Somali journalists have fled the country by the
dozens over the past decade, according to CPJ's
annual report on exiled
journalists. The exodus has decimated the local press
corps and left a significant void in coverage seen internationally. Worldwide, only Ethiopian journalists have fled in higher
numbers over the past decade, according to CPJ
research.

Insurgents, notably militants with Al-Shabaab, have routinely shuttered
stations deemed critical of their operations, seizing the properties for use in spreading their own propaganda. A
government-allied militia, Ahlu Sunna Wal Jama'a, alsoseized a radio station.